Special immigration counters for high-flying corp biggies

New Delhi: Home minister Shivraj Patil has asked officials to consider putting up special immigration counters for corporate travellers flying on their own aircraft. The move is indicative of a line of thinking which treats flights by corporate aircraft as a distinct category of travel — different from commercial flights operated by airlines.
According to industry data, aircraft owned by corporates take 690 flights per month, including 70 private charters. The number is expected to increase as a number of small companies are also buying their own planes.
The proposed move is aimed to address the grievances expressed by corporate top guns who use their own planes or chartered aircraft to avoid regular airline flights and save time, but still get stuck at serpentine queues at immigration and customs counters.
Mr Patil’s directions to consider the possibility of special counters for corporates is based on suggestions from industrialist Venugopal Dhoot in his capacity as president of Assocham. To start with, the possibility of separate immigration counters is being considered at airports in Mumbai and Delhi, which are being upgraded now.
05/02/08 G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, New Feb 2008